This is the ninth and last in a series.
Earlier in this series, we have focused on the many lessons to learn from the failures by Team Trump that allowed allegations of fraud, failures to follow election law, and the flouting of the Constitution’s provisions to become decisive factors in the election (We know that these are factors because, in Time magazine, the allegations were all but admitted to.). Team Trump’s failures included bad personnel decisions, the failure to plan, how they didn’t “prepare the battlefield” prior to the election, not anticipating attacks or thinking about how his message came across, the inaccurate assessment of the situation – all of which were massive tactical and strategic failures created by not thinking ahead and which warrant some serious housecleaning.
But there was something that just about everyone on the right did that also was short-sighted – something that made the conspiracy Time covered in glowing terms possible. Many on the right simply left the field in a number of arenas, ranging from entertainment to education to government to finance to technology. When that happened, the vulnerability was there for something akin to the 2020 election to happen.
The most important development in the long struggle to return our country did not come from Washington, D.C., where President Trump was acquitted on the sole charge of his second impeachment. The person who struck the biggest blow to the Left since, was actually based out of Nashville.
Gina Carano Signs New Movie Deal with Ben Shapiro ... After Disney 'Star Wars' Ousting.
It came Friday, February 12, when the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro announced that the conservative site, which has been branching into entertainment, struck a deal with Gina Carano, who had been dropped from the hit online series The Mandalorian, to star and produce a film. The site had already streamed the film Run, Hide, Fight. But in this, Shapiro is not only highlighting one last lesson we should learn from the 2020 election, but he has also been taking action.
Think about how often you heard Trump (or some stand-in) vilified in entertainment or from the teachers in your child’s school. Did you notice how big business – not just the tech companies – have fallen in line with the demands of the Left? How about the times where financial services were pulled from legal businesses the Left hated? Many of the things we feel outraged over happened because the Left was allowed free reign in those areas.
Here is the dirty little secret that the Left doesn’t want you to understand: Just showing up and fighting makes their life harder. Here’s one concrete example: The New York Times just published a column urging cable providers to pull Fox News off basic cable packages. This comes as Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax are targeted by many on the totalitarian left for silencing on various grounds.
Why do they want these conservative outlets – and others – off the field? All you have to do is go back over five decades ago to find out why: In February 1968, Walter Cronkite declared that the Vietnam War was a stalemate and single-handedly turned the tide of public opinion against that conflict. He was wrong, but there was, in 1968, no effective means for those who knew the facts to challenge his pronouncement. Millions paid for Cronkite’s false claim with their lives and freedom.
On February 27, 1968, a few weeks after returning from a reporting trip to Vietnam, Cronkite famously offered an editorial regarding the war which stated, in part, “The bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic if unsatisfactory conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy’s intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.”
Fast-forward 36 years to the 2004 presidential campaign. When Dan Rather broke a story purporting to prove that then-President George W. Bush had not fulfilled his National Guard commitments. It was perceived as a hit. Within hours, though, a rag-tag bunch of bloggers had discovered evidence calling into question the documentation's authenticity. Within weeks, Rather was out in disgrace from CBS News.
What happened was that conservatives had found their way onto the field via blogging. The presence of conservative media outlets like talk radio also helped. Even though the “mainstream” outlets still had more reach, they no longer had a virtual monopoly on the news. That has grown, with a wide variety of conservative outlets, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from the libertarian-minded Reason to the MAGA-inclined American Greatness.
Like what happened with the news media, there now are nascent efforts, particularly in technology and entertainment. The former has seen some major hiccups with Gab and Parler, and President Trump is reportedly planning his own social media platform. However, the latter is moving forward slowly, but surely, with Shapiro’s Daily Wire taking an early lead by having released one film already and now making this deal. Coming in behind them are more ambitious efforts hoping for wider reach: Nick Searcy is supporting Creado and Antonio Sabato, Jr. has launched Conflix Studios.
These are huge steps – because, for 75 million-plus Trump supporters, there have been precious few entertainment options run by people who do not hate them. The construction of competing social media apps, and eventually, competing financial technology (like payment processing), online advertising, and even financial services, particularly in the red states, will break the Left’s monopoly. When that happens, it will be far harder for them to repeat how they unfairly manipulated the playing field in 2020.
In one sense, we need to understand that it is not enough to think down the road. After one has thought and come to conclusions about what to do, one has to act effectively. When entities are getting on the field to challenge those who have sided with the Left against those seeking a return to constitutional government and a world view that puts American interests first, all you have to do is back them. It’s not that hard, and you don’t even need to boycott anyone.
Similarly, if there are people whose kids are interested in going into some of the fields where the Left has dominated, whether it is teaching, technology, marketing, it should be encouraged. Even a desire to work in government at any level, be it federal, state, county, or local level, should not be squashed. After all, the techniques that unelected bureaucrats used to obstruct Trump could always be turned on the Left provided the right people are there.
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII
